Positive
by Mad Cow
Summary: Hank has spent all of his life hiding from that one little word. Positive. And when the word finds him, there is nowhere to go but down...


_Disclaimer: I don't own Hank, Jamie, Tyler or Val. However, Mom, Dad, my birthday is only in three months, and Danso Gordon would make a wonderful birthday present!!_

Prologue   
Hank closed his eyes. He didn't want to look at the French test before him. However, Hank _never_ got anything below a B in anything, so even though he left most of the questions blank, he knew he'd still pull through.   
Hank opened his eyes.   
There, marked in bright red ink, was his grade.   
63.   
_ 63._   
Hank groaned audibly. Jamie swiveled in his seat. "Oh no! Did you get a B?"   
Hank glared at Jamie. "I failed," He whispered.   
Jamie picked up the test, and looked at the grade. "Ouch."   
"What about you?" Hank asked, knowing that Jamie's score couldn't be much higher. After all, even though Jamie's family spoke French, Jamie was still Jamie, and Hank was still Hank.   
Jamie averted his eyes so he wasn't looking at Hank. "98."   
"_98_?" Hank asked. "You're a sophomore taking French III! I'm a junior! How can you be doing better than me? If I don't pass this class, I'll have to stay in Three as a senior, and if I don't pass then, I won't get my three credits, and I won't graduate with Distinguished Honors! It is because of French I'm not at the top of my class!"   
Jamie raised an eyebrow. "Oooh. You may be ranked 5 instead of 1! How awful! Besides, don't you have a tutor?"   
"Monique? I think got her so frustrated she went back to France."   
Jamie laughed. "You have such luck with the ladies."   
"Tell me about it."   
"_Vous savez, si échoue tou'autrement, je pourriez précepteur vous_," Jamie said.   
Hank held up his hands. "Slow down! I'm failing French, remember?"   
Jamie grinned. "I said, 'You know, if all else fails, I could tutor you.'"   
"When would we have time? Football practice lasts until the beginning of our shift, and I have to spend the time at the station on other homework."   
"Do you have any free time? Like on Saturdays or something?" Jamie asked.   
Hank thought for a second. "Actually, I have all of Sunday mornings free," He said just as the bell rang.   
They both picked up their stuff and began to leave "So I'll see you Sunday morning, then. What time?" Jamie asked.   
"9:30?"   
"9:30 it is."   
***   
Jamie pulled into the Beecham driveway at 9:30 on Sunday morning. It was exactly the house Jamie has always imagined Hank having. Two story, white brick, a nicely done porch painted white. It even had a garden. Jamie trudged up the stairs, and knocked on the door.   
The woman who opened it, however, was the exact opposite of the type of mother Jamie would have picked for Hank. She was short and thin, with bright curly blonde hair that cascaded down her back like a waterfall. And she was no darker in skin tone than Jamie. She even had blue eyes.   
The woman pulled Jamie into the dwelling, which looked pretty much inside like every standard upper class house. "You must be Jamie!" The woman exclaimed, and was acting far too perky for 9:30 Sunday morning. "Come with me into the kitchen, you can take the stairs there up to Hank's room."   
Jamie followed obediently. Inside the kitchen was a man. He looked much taller than his wife, with dark hair neatly trimmed. He was sipping coffee and reading the newspaper, pretty much like any normal father.   
However, he was white, too.   
The man lowered his paper. "Good morning," He said, in a less cheery, though still greeting, tone.   
The woman pointed him in the direction of some stairs. "He's right up there," She instructed. "Through the only door."   
Jamie climbed the flight of stairs, which was taller than most. As he reached the top, he saw the brown door, and knocked. Hank opened it.   
"Hey."   
"_Bonjour_."   
Hank groaned. "It's far to early for French."   
"You picked the time, not me," Jamie said as he entered the room. He looked around. When he saw the structure of the huge room, and then put together how tall the flight of stairs was, he figured it out. "You live in the attic?"   
Hank grinned. "Of course! It's bigger than any other room in the house, including the living room. Plus, it gets me off of the same floor as my parents."   
"Speaking of parents," Jamie began. "Were those your parents down there?"   
"Yes."   
"But they're..." He trailed off.   
"White, I know." Hank noticed the expression on Jamie's face. "What? I've known you for this long and have never gotten around to telling you I'm adopted?"   
"Can't say you have."   
"Oh, well I am."   
"I'm sorry."   
Hank shrugged. "It's no big deal. I don't beat myself up over it, or at least, I haven't since I figured out the logic behind my being put up for adoption."   
"Logic being?"   
"My biological mother, as of right now, is 32. I'm 17. Do the math."   
Jamie quickly subtracted in his head. "Oh." He paused. "Have you met your biological parents?"   
"My father, no, and I don't care to. My mother, yes. However, I don't see her too often because she's...sick..." He trailed off. But then he smiled briefly. "Just don't think that you've now got something on me to gossip about. Just about the whole school knows that."   
There was a lull in the conversation. Jamie used the time to pull out his French book. "_Ainsi, où nous commencent_?"   
"How about with the phrase, '_Ainsi, où nous commencent_?'?"   
"It means, 'So, where do we begin?'" Jamie told him.   
"_Ainsi, où nous commencent_?" Hank repeated. "So, where do we begin?"   
"Very good. Now, let's start with the stuff that was on the last test."   
"Are you sure we can't start at Freshman year?"   
An hour later, Jamie was on the verge of throwing his book down and yelling 'Stupid American!', but as Hank was the leader of his squad, he decided against it.   
However, Hank did throw his book down in disgust. "How do you know all this?" Hank demanded.   
Jamie allowed a small smile. "_Ce qui? Je vous ai connu pour ce long et n'ai jamais circulé à vous dire que j'ai grandi au Canada_?"   
"I caught the word Canada!" Hank announced triumphantly.   
Jamie sighed. "I said, 'What? You mean I've known you this long and have never gotten around to telling you I grew up in Canada?"   
"You know, your jokes would be a lot funnier if they were in English." Then Hank paused. "Wait. You grew up in Canada?"   
Jamie nodded. "Well, until I was eleven, at least. Most of the people in my neighborhood spoke French and English, my family included. Actually, when we moved here, I had a better grasp on French than I did on English. And sometimes, when I'm really, really, really pissed, my words flow out in French, without me even intending to do it."   
Hank eyed Jamie. "Then why are you even taking French? You could easily pass the waiver tests to get your credits."   
Jamie laughed. "Hello? It's the only class where I have the hopes of getting an A!"   
Just then, the phone rang, and Hank walked over to another table to pick it up. "Hello?" He asked. He paused for a few moments. "Yeah Doc, it's me." Another pause. "The lab results are back? Good...what did they say?" He paused for a second, and Jamie watched as all of the color drained out of Hank's face. "Oh. My. God." He began to sit down. "Positive." He dropped the phone, and it hung here, waiting to be picked back up. 

Chapter 1   
A few hours later, Jamie rode his bike to the station, and parked it. Hank's house had been...weird. After the phone call, Hank just broke down. There was no other way to describe it. His mom had come up the stairs, and Hank simply yelled 'the results were positive', and his mother stared for a moment, and then yelled and screamed and sobbed, and Jamie decided that it was a good time to leave. So he did.   
When he entered the station, Jamie found Tyler. "Hank may be late tonight, if he comes at all."   
Tyler raised an eyebrow. "Why?"   
"I was over at his house tutoring him in French when he got a phone call from some doctor. The doctor said something about lab results being positive, and Hank just broke down. Do you know what that's about?"   
Tyler thought for a second. "Well, Hank's adopted, and-"   
Jamie cut him off. "Yeah, it's kinda hard to meet his parents without figuring it out."   
"Sorry, I wasn't sure if you knew or not. Anyway, I remember him saying something once about his biological mother being sick. Maybe it has to do about that."   
Jamie shrugged. "But his mo-I mean, Mrs. Beecham,"   
"His mom," Tyler corrected.   
"Yeah. Well, anyway, she got all crazy, too."   
"Hm. Well, I don't know what it could be about, but I'll stop in when our shift is over."   
***   
Tyler turned the knob on Hank's front door. After so many years of friendship, Tyler didn't even bother to knock, as Hank didn't bother at his house. The living room was empty, so he walked into the kitchen. Sitting at the table were Hank's parents, heads bowed, hands covering their faces. "Hi Jim, Lynette," He said. Hank's parents made no indication they saw him.   
"Um...I'm going to the Pit, OK?" He said, referring to Hank's room. Jim, Hank's father, lifted up his head to stare at Tyler with swollen, red eyes.   
Tyler shuddered a bit inwardly, and climbed the familiar stairs. He pushed open Hank's door. Hank was sitting at his desk, his normally open and smiling face contorted into a facade of grief.   
Tyler sat down on Hank's bed. "What's the matter, man?"   
Hank didn't meet Tyler's eyes. "I'm positive."   
"Positive?"   
"HIV Positive."   
Disbelief hit Tyler like a wave that almost physically knocked him backwards followed a few seconds later by indescribable grief. "H...I...V?"   
Hank nodded solemnly, slowly. "My...my real mother...she was found HIV positive about 6 years ago. No one knew if she got it before I was born or not, or even if she did have it, if it was passed to me. I've been tested every couple of months for it for the past 5 years. And they found in the recent tests that..." Hank swallowed hard, having difficulty putting it into words. "That apparently, she...passed...it to me."   
Tyler couldn't believe it. How could Hank, his best friend since pre-school, have HIV? It wasn't possible.   
Tyler tasted something salty. Tears. Tyler was crying. Before long both were sobbing, unable to believe that Hank's days were numbered.   
***   
Hank came to the station and gathered everyone together. He bit his lower lip. "I'm leaving the squad.   
Val stood up suddenly. "Why?" She asked. You can't leave!"   
Hank sighed. He looked each one in the eyes before looking down at the ground. "I'm HIV Positive."   
Val fell back into her chair. "HIV Positive?" She echoed, and began to cry.   
Even Jamie felt tears spring to his eyes. "_Pourquoi les mauvaises choses arrivent-elles à de bonnes gens_?" He asked angrily, not even realizing he had switched to French in his grief.   


Chapter 2   
One year later...   
Tyler checked his watch as the finished dropping someone off at the hospital. "We've got a few spare minutes before have to head back," He told the others. "Want to visit Hank?" Both Val and Jamie nodded wildly, their fourth, Michael, who didn't really know Hank, decided to go back to the ambulance at get it started, in case they had another call.   
Tyler led the way to Hank's room; he had been spending a lot of time in the hospital lately, for treatments and such.   
Tyler pushed open the door. "Heeeey," Tyler said.   
Hank immeditially sat up, despite all of the tubes and wires connected to him. He looked a little groggy, but still excited to see his friends. "Hey!" He called. "How's the outside doing without me?"   
"I have to admit, it's a much darker place," Val admitted.   
Hank half smiled. "Well then, I'll do my best to get out of here ASAP."   
"You better." 

Chapter 3   
Tyler was studying for his Bio test the next day, when the phone rang.   
"I'll get it," Jamie told Tyler, and pushed his chair to the desk and picked up the phone. "You've reached the dorm of Waite and Connell, partners in crime. This is Waite speaking, how can I help you?" He asked in an official voice.   
There was a pause. Then Jamie's voice filled with dread. "Oh, no."   
"What?" Tyler mouthed.   
Jamie put his hand over the phone. "It's about Hank. He's slipped into a coma."   
"Lets get tickets to Kingsport, and fast."   
***   
Tyler watched Hank's chest slowly rise and fall. His cheeks were sunken in, his eyes hollow. Tyler could barely stand to see Hank like this. He wanted to remember Hank forever as Hank was when they were in sophomore and early junior year. Strong, healthy, and full of life, not some corpse hours from death.   
Soon after Hank's 19th birthday, his HIV turned into full-blown AIDS. It moved quickly, and ravaged Hank's body.   
After all of this preparation, after all of the time waiting for that final phone call, he couldn't believe it was happening now. Hank was dying, and he probably wouldn't make the night.   
A lone tear slipped down Tyler's cheek. He sat down in the hard plastic hospital chair to wait.   
And he waited all of that night, until the heart monitor went flat, and Hank became but a memory   
***   
The day was sunny and clear, the winds favorable, the sky a light and beautiful blue. It was the perfect day.   
Except it was the day they were burying Hank.   
Val and Tyler leaned on each other for support, Jamie was hanging for dear life onto Caitie. Any of the four of them could lose it at any moment, and they knew it. Val began to cry softly, and all followed. It was hard to believe that Hank was really and truly gone, that he would never be just a phone call away, that he would never be there to laugh with, to smile with, just to talk.   
"_Au revoir, mon ami. Repos dans la paix_," Jamie whispered.   
Despite how beautiful the day was, the quartet would always remember it as one of the worst they had ever experienced.   


_Author's Notes: Well, now that was a Kleenex, in more was than one, eh? I would just like to make it clear I know next to nothing about HIV and AIDS, and if I screwed something up, I'm sorry._   
_Also, I don't speak a word of French. I couldn't carry on a conversation in French if my life depended on in (though I could possibly carry on a brief conversation with a Spanish toddler...). All of the English to French translations were gotten off of a site called Systran Internet Translation Technologies, so if it's wrong, don't blame me!_   
_And for the two French phrases Jamie said that I provided no translation for, '_Pourquoi les mauvaises choses arrivent-elles à de bonnes gens?_' means 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' and '_Au revoir, mon ami. Repos dans la paix_.' Means 'Goodbye, friend. Rest in Peace.'_   
_Oh, yes, and I am hard at work on HATE, Spotless, and another ficcie called 'A Boy and A Girl In a Little Canoe' (Which, BTW, will be my first Bleacher Junkie fic!!), but I decided to take the day off to write this._


End file.
